Florida socialite at center of David Petraeus scandal breaks silence

Jill Kelley, the Florida socialite caught up in the David Petraeus scandal, claims she was "terrified" by a series of threatening emails the CIA director's mistress sent to her last year.

In an interview with the Daily Beast, Kelley says she began receiving emails from an anonymous sender late last summer that included "blackmail, extortion, threats."

Kelley claims she learned of the first mysterious message from her husband, who opened the email under a Yahoo account he shared with his wife, according to the website.

Kelley would later learn that the emails were being sent from Paula Broadwell, Petraeus' biographer and mistress, after an FBI investigation into the matter exposed his extramarital affair.

Kelley said the messages did not warn her to keep away from Petraeus, contrary to published accounts about the scandal. She told the Daily Beast it is "bizarre" to depict herself and Broadwell as "romantic rivals."

“I never met Paula in my life,” Kelley told the website.

Kelley, a wealthy Tampa socialite, had befriended Petraeus and John Allen, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan.

Petraeus, a four-star general who led American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, resigned from his post as CIA director in November -- citing an extramarital affair and "extremely poor judgment."